I have a new tutorial available today over on the StencilGirl blog! I'm sharing one of the ways I like to art journal on top of layers of paint and images left over from cleaning off my stamps and paint brushes on the blank pages of my journal.

If you'd like to see more on how this page came together, make sure to head over to StencilGirl Talk to see my step-by-step photo tutorial.

I'm thrilled to start 2020 with the announcement of three new stamp sets that I've designed for PaperArtsy and so excited that I'm finally able to share these new designs.

The first set in this release is all based on drawings and designs from my art journal which were inspired by Australian Aboriginal artwork (a long-time fascination of mine since the first time I saw examples of this art form, close to 20 years ago.) All of the designs in this set are hand-drawn and incredibly detailed. And... fish, of course.

The designs in this set are some of my absolute favorites. The patterned scalloped border can be repeated both end-to-end and back to back to create various borders and lines. The small fish and the stamp with the irregular shapes and dots can also both be repeated to make backgrounds and patterns. Of course, you can really repeat all of them to make a variety of collage papers and backgrounds, as you can see in my sample below.

The second set in this release is again hand-drawn and entirely based on a set of hand-carved stamps that I made over the last year.

These designs were inspired by the huge Southern Magnolia tree in the backyard of my family home - I love seeing it covered with huge blossoms in the spring, and nearly year-round it's full of birds flitting in and out of the tree. We see lots of cardinals, blue jays, even woodpeckers. But I have a soft spot for the adorable, tiny finches as they hop along the branches.

The final set in this release is the one I call Plus Signs. This is one of my personal symbols; you'll see it show up very frequently in my journals and artwork, so I was excited to create variations on this symbol and have them made into stamps.

The five circles down the right side are all one stamp, so you can use them as a border. I actually cut them apart in my set so that I can use them individually or rearrange them into a different order or configuration. (Of course, as the designer I have more than one set, so my second set keeps them all together.) You can repeat this and the smaller plus sign border to make long lines. The scattered plus signs and the circle plus sign cluster can also repeat to make great backgrounds and larger patterns. I like using the large plus in the scribble circles as a focal point, or even as the eye in a portrait as you can see in my sample below.

For my release post over on the PaperArtsy blog, I also created a new piece using all three stamp sets. I really wanted to feature the little finch stamp from EGL05 as the focal point and then built up the layers under and around it to mix all the designs together.

I even used real branches for my little bird to perch on; they're stitched to the page and I positioned the colored and cut out leaf stamp images so they looked like they were growing out of the branch.

Make sure to head over to the PaperArtsy blog for the full release post. I have handmade card samples for each stamp set as well as the tutorial for how to make the piece above featuring all three stamp sets.

I'm so excited to be able to have my designs available in stamps... I love using them in my own artwork and I hope that you love them as much as I do - I can't wait to see what you all do with them!

The new stamps are available in my shop (along with my original three sets,) or check with your local store to see if they've already got them in stock.